Pan Macmillan appoints North to newly created role of Pan publicity director

Poppy North has been appointed to the newly created role of Pan publicity director.

In the job she will be working across the imprints that comprise the Pan division: Macmillan, Macmillan Business, Tor and Mantle. The publisher says the new role is of key strategic importance in the division, “helping to shape the publishing, leading and managing the publicity team across the lists and developing and creating the biggest and most ambitious campaigns for many of Pan Macmillan’s key authors".

North has been at Penguin General, latterly as associate communications director, for 10 years. She was part of a team that delivered campaigns for the likes of former US president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, Dolly Alderton, Ben Macintyre and Stanley Tucci, and launched debuts such as Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Miranda Cowley Heller’s The Paper Palace.

Prior to being at Penguin General, Poppy was press officer at Hodder & Stoughton. She joins Pan in September reporting to Pan communications director Claire Evans.

Evans said: “Poppy is indisputably one of the rising stars in the industry whose campaigns have made a huge impact, creating bestsellers and launching writers’ careers. I am absolutely thrilled that she’s joining our talented publicity and marketing team at this really exciting time for Pan.”

Lucy Hale, publisher of Pan, said: “This year has already been a stellar year for Pan and Poppy is joining us at the perfect time. We have had significant bestseller successes this year with our brand authors — Peter James, Danielle Steel, Ann Cleeves, David Baldacci, Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker, and Kate Mosse in fiction — and with Finding Hildasay and BTS Beyond the Story in non-fiction Tor goes from strength to strength under its expanded team.

“We launched Macmillan Business Books earlier in the year and have more ambitious plans for our non-fiction publishing. Next year we will celebrate Pan’s 80th birthday: Pan was established in the war as a paperback list — second only to Penguin — and since then its name has been synonymous with many of the best and bestselling writers of their time. We are enormously proud of our history and I am absolutely delighted that Poppy is joining us at such a significant time to play a key role in our ambitious plans for the future.”

North commented: “I’ve loved my 10 years at Penguin General and have been privileged to work with incredible authors and an amazing team. I’m hugely looking forward to joining Pan at such an exciting time in their publishing. I’ve long admired the breadth and ambition of their list, and can’t wait to get started and meet the team there.”